This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9 billion project to build the Barclays Center arena and 16 high-rise buildings at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park Brooklyn in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake in 15 towers. New York State still calls it Atlantic Yards. Note: archive at right.

Security concerns "a new low" or a question of parallelism?

When it comes to whether planned street closings around the Prudential Center arena in Newark have any implication for Brooklyn, it depends which paper you read, apparently.

This week's Brooklyn Paper, in a story headlined Tale of 2 cities: Newark arena closes key streets; Yards next?, offered some skepticism about the Brooklyn plan:But no matter how good the Brooklyn security plan is, experts dislike the secrecy surrounding it.“There is a reasonable expectation on the part of the public that they be informed,” said Robert McCrie, a security management professor at John Jay College“If the public is going to be inconvenienced, they should know, in advance, what is anticipated — and that they have an opportunity to voice their feelings.”

In the Courier-Life

The Brooklyn Paper has taken a tough line editorially on Atlantic Yards and often published critical reportage; neither the city police department, the state, or developer Forest City Ratner would comment. (Forest City had issued a general press statement to other news outlets.)

The latter two did comment to the Courier-Life chain, in an article (not yet online) headlined "Yards as terrorist target: Foes argue massive development poses risks." The article didn't raise the same kind of skepticism, leading off:Grasping at straws or a real concern for the safety of Brooklyn?Either way, opponents of Forest City Ratner Companies' Atlantic Yard project were out in colorful force last week declaring the project a terrorist threat.But FCRC Executive Vice President Bruce Bender countered that "opponents are reaching a new low in their misguided attempts to delay a publicly approved and supported development."

Bender repeated the developer's mantra FCR had worked with security experts, and had plans approved by city experts, and that such matters should not be discussed in public.

(The project may be "publicly approved"--counting the unelected Empire State Development Corporation and the "three men in a room" of the Public Authorities Control Board--but not exactly "democratically approved.")

Still, there's a basic question of parallelism: if streets will close in Newark, shouldn't we know whether officials plan to close streets in Brooklyn--and, if not, what makes the design and security barriers in Brooklyn different?

ESDC spokesman Errol Cockfield said that plans had been reviewed by the police, but that state officials would be happy to meet with community representatives. So maybe it all will be ventilated.

Skepticism on security--elsewhere

The Courier-Life (and very same reporter) took a more skeptical line in another article, headlined Yeshiva, hospital labeled ‘high-risk’ targets - Congressman secures Homeland Security funds for Brooklyn sitesIs it money to bolster security against possible terrorist attacks or fishing Brooklyn’s non-profit waters for potential mayoral votes?Either way, Rep. Anthony Weiner last week touted his work in helping 12 Brooklyn non-profit and religious institutions get federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grants....Interestingly, the Yeshiva of Manhattan Beach is located on the fourth floor of Manhattan Beach Jewish Center, 60 West Avenue, which as a separate non-profit entity didn’t receive any money.Neither Rubin Margules, president of the Manhattan Beach Jewish Center, nor Jerry Greenwald, president of the Yeshiva of Manhattan Beach, returned calls for comment as to what makes the fourth floor of the building a “high risk” terrorist target and not the rest of the building.

So, what makes the planned Brooklyn arena less of a target than the about-to-open arena in Newark? Interestingly, no representatives of the developer nor public officials have yet offered an explanation.

While that's part of the lawsuit, more prominent are claims of racial discrimination and retaliation, with black employees claiming repeated abuse by white supervisors, preferential treatment toward Hispanic colleagues, and retaliation in response to complaints.

Two individual supervisors, for example, are charged with referring to black employees as “black motherfucker,” “dumb black bitch,” “black monkey,” “piece of shit” and “nigger.”

Two have referred to an employee blind in one eye as “cyclops,” and “the one-eyed guy,” and an employee with a nose disorder as “the nose guy.”

There's been no official response yet though arena spokesman Barry Baum told the Daily News they, but take “allegations of this kind very seriously” and have "a zero tolerance policy for…

To supporters of Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, it's a long-awaited plan for long-overlooked land. "The Atlantic Yards area has been available for any developer in America for over 100 years,” declared Borough President Marty Markowitz at a 5/26/05 City Council hearing.

Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, mused on 11/15/05 to WNYC's Brian Lehrer, “Isn’t it interesting that these railyards have sat for decades and decades and decades, and no one has done a thing about them.” Forest City Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco, in a 12/19/04 New York Times article ("In a War of Words, One Has the Power to Wound") described the railyards as "an empty scar dividing the community."

But why exactly has the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Vanderbilt Yard never been developed? Do public officials have some responsibility?

At right is a photo of a poster spotted in Hasidic Williamsburg right. Clearly there's an event scheduled at the Barclays Center aimed at the Haredi Jewish community (strict Orthodox Jews who reject secular culture), but the lack of English text makes it cryptic.

The website Matzav.com explains, Protest Against Israeli Draft of Bnei Yeshiva Rescheduled for Barclays Center:
A large asifa to protest the drafting of bnei yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel into the Israeli army that had been set to take place this month will instead be held on Sunday, 17 Sivan/June 11, at the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn, NY.
So attendees at a big gathering will protest an apparent change of policy that will make it much more difficult for traditional Orthodox Jewish students--both Hasidic (who follow a rebbe) and non-Hasidic (who don't)--to get deferments from the draft. Comments on the Yeshiva World website explain some of the debate.

First mentioned in April, the Atlantic Yards project in Atlanta is moving ahead--and has the potential to nudge Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn further down in Google searches.

According to a 5/30/17 press release, Hines and Invesco Real Estate Announce T3 West Midtown and Atlantic Yards:
Hines, the international real estate firm, and Invesco Real Estate, a global real estate investment manager, today announced a joint venture on behalf of one of Invesco Real Estate’s institutional clients to develop two progressive office projects in Atlanta totalling 700,000 square feet. T3 West Midtown will be a 200,000-square-foot heavy timber office development and Atlantic Yards will consist of 500,000 square feet of progressive office space in two buildings. Both projects are located on sites within Atlantic Station in the flourishing Midtown submarket.
Hines will work with Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture (HPA) as the design architect for both T3 West Midtown and Atlantic Yards. DLR Group will be t…

Pacific Park Brooklyn is seriously delayed, Forest City Realty Trust said yesterday in a news release, which further acknowledged that the project has caused a $300 million impairment, or write-down of the asset, as the expected revenues no longer exceed the carrying cost.

The Cleveland-based developer, parent of Brooklyn-based Forest City Ratner, which is a 30% investor in Pacific Park along with 70% partner/overseer Greenland USA, blamed the "significant impairment" on an oversupply of market-rate apartments, the uncertain fate of the 421-a tax break, and a continued increase in construction costs.

While the delay essentially confirms the obvious, given that two major buildings have not launched despite plans to do so, it raises significant questions about the future of the project, including:if market-rate construction is delayed, will the affordable h…

Real Estate Weekly, reporting on trends in Chinese investment in New York City, on 11/18/15 quoted Jim Costello, a senior vice president at research firm Real Capital Analytics:
“They’re typically building high-end condos, build it and sell it. Capital return is in a few years. That’s something that is ingrained in the companies that have been coming here because that’s how they’ve grown in the last 35 years. It’s always been a development game for them. So they’re just repeating their business model here,” he said.
When I read that last November, I didn't think it necessarily applied to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, now 70% owned (outside of the Barclays Center and B2 modular apartment tower), by the Greenland Group, owned significantly by the Shanghai government.
A majority of the buildings will be rentals, some 100% market, some 100% affordable, and several--the last several built--are supposed to be 50% market/50% subsidized. (See tentative timetable below.)Selling development …

Click on graphic to enlarge. This is post-dated to stay at the top of the blog. It will be updated as announced configurations change and buildings launch. The August 2014 tentative configurations proposed by developer Greenland Forest City Partners will change, and the project is already well behind that tentative timetable.